In a cellular wireless network such as GSM, UMTS, LTE, the number of user equipment terminals (UEs) that are attached to each of the cells in the network can vary substantially. In a conventional network, a UE is typically attached to the cell from which it receives the strongest signal.
The maximum downlink data throughput that can be achieved by a UE depends on several factors. For example, the amount of co-channel interference significantly impacts throughput. The amount of interference is affected by the transmission power of neighboring cells, the path loss between the UE and the neighbor cells and the activity level of the neighbor cells.
The total number of active UEs that are being simultaneously served by a cell also affects network performance. When a cell serves more and more UEs, each UE receives a correspondingly smaller share of the fixed amount of wireless resources. In other words, the performance of a particular cell is inversely proportional to the number of active UE attached to the cell.
Conventional attempts to improve network performance have involved static allocation of various transmission power levels to different frequency slots, and allocating lower transmission power based on UE location. However, while static allocation can have a positive effect, it does not adequately account for dynamic elements of the network.